A Safe Vay-cay

(Note: Luke is heading to Indonesia for some vay-cay, then on to serve in Iraq for a time)

Cameron: stay outta trouble over there in the sandbox man
we need to see you come back in one piece
Luke: in Indonesia, or Iraq? because i’m honestly more concerned about dying in Jakarta than i am Baghdad
Cameron: def, al-queda nightclub blasts watch out
Luke: hella tourists are dying from weird homemade alcohol
which makes me want to try it even more.

Quarter Pounders in Shibuya

Add this onto your list of restaurants to visit in Tokyo.

(The super simple menu is limted to a Quarter Pounder, Double Quarter Pounder, fries and drinks):

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It’s Official…Everything in Japan is better. – A Continuous Lean.

Dear X-Ray Machine Reader

The airport-scanner operator will flip when you roll through security with this backpack:

By Evan Roth, via MAKE

Airline Baggage Fees

With regard to my air travel experiences, I’ve always been the exception to the rule. While others complain about lost bags and missed connections, I’ve always found flights to have fantastic food, friendly stewards, and ne’er have I had a bag lost by an airline.

This year, that’s starting to change. In July, Olympic Airlines disappointed me by not allowing me to carry my skateboard onboard the aircraft (they confiscated it). The meal on that flight was inedible. Cornbread like a brick, a mini-hot dog that had a rubbery consistency, and a mini-brownie that tasted like chalk and felt like a sponge.

On my United flight last week, I was charged $15 to check my 1st bag. Now, Continental is doing the same.

As an economist, I think prices should reflect services rendered, in order to pass on costs only to those that use the service. What pisses me off about the United bag fee is that is was never disclosed to me before I bought the ticket. Fare-search engines like Kayak.com and Expedia.com should ask how many bags you plan to check, and adjust the flight cost accordingly. This way, you might find that a $250 roundtrip flight on Alaska might actually be less expensive than a $225 roundtrip fare on United or Continental, considering the $30 fee to check a bag each way.

If a fee is not disclosed, it’s unethical.

Postcards from Greece

Here are a few photos from my trip in Greece from last month:

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Mini Bears Roam Greece

We ran into this little animal inside the Starbucks in Varkiza:

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Unbelievable Wealth

I thought London was wealthy — here in Athens, it’s out of control!  Last night, we went to a nightclub called Island with Patrick and Pavlos to celebrate the American College of Greece’s commencement, and the parking lot consisted of a Ferrari F430 Spyder, a Ferrari 599, a Porsche Turbo, an Audi R8, an Aston Martin DB V8, a BMW M6, various Range Rovers, Lotuses; the list goes on.  I’ve never seen any parking lot quite like it (though I imagine car meetups in Dubai would blow this out of the water!)

Here are the comparatively humble shots of London’s supercars from our visit last week:

Little Venice

Given that Athens and the surrounding Greek islands are to be my home this summer, I’ve been doing some research on Greek history.  One name that keeps popping up is Eleftherios Venizelos, a prolific Greek statesman who was at the country’s helm as Crete revolted from Ottoman rule and became a part of Greece. Venizelos was the deciding factor in Greece’s decision to side with the allies (the Triple Entente) in World War I. The Greek King, Constantine, was related by blood to the German monarchy and hence supported the Central Powers. The fact that Venizelos was able to prevail over his own King speaks of his power and tact. Due to Mr. Venizelos’ alliance with the Entente, he was granted a seat at the Treaty of Paris, where the winners of the war divided up the spoils. Greece then received the Dodecanese Islands, some coastal areas in West Turkey (Smyrna/Izmir and Thrace), which brought the newly enlarged Greek empire to the Constantinople’s doorstep (the Greeks had long dreamed of owning an empire that included Constantinople and coastal Anatolia).

When I first came upon his surname, Venizelos, I thought it must’ve been an ancient progenitor of the name of modern Venezuela (many cities in South America are named after cities in Europe). I found the true story to be much more interesting: Amerigo Vespucci, upon seeing villages built atop stilts in South America, was reminded of Venice’s homes and decreed that the land was to be called Venezuola, meaning “little Venice” in Italian. It was later hispanicized using a Spanish diminutive form -zuela, and hasn’t changed since.

Syria is Stuck (In The Middle Ages)

I’m thinking of traveling through the Middle East this summer, and in the course of my research, I’ve read a ton about Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

The U.S. State Department gives an idea of what Syria’s economy is like:

“Syria is a middle-income, developing country with an economy based on agriculture, oil, industry, and tourism. However, Syria’s economy faces serious challenges and impediments to growth, including: a large and poorly performing public sector; declining rates of oil production; widening non-oil deficit; wide scale corruption; weak financial and capital markets; and high rates of unemployment tied to a high population growth rate. In addition, Syria currently is the subject of U.S. economic sanctions…”

Sounds like a basket case. It’s pretty sad when runaway population growth causes increasing unemployment.

“Agriculture [...] accounts for 25% of GDP and employs 42% of the total labor force.”

I’ve got to say, that’s really sad. It’s 2008 — wave of the future and all — and Syria has nearly half its workforce doing the menial labor of growing and gathering food. I’m pretty sure that the characters on the show Lost manage to employ less than 20% of their population gathering food.

In the United States, only 1.8% of of workers are employed in agriculture, which allows the other 98% to pursue whatever it is they choose.

U.S. State Department – Syria: Background Note

View From The Denver Art Museum

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They Speak English In London?

Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder confessed today he didn’t know until Tuesday that people spoke English in London.  Crowder, a former Florida Gator and Atlanta native, apparently isn’t sure where the plane is headed when it takes off this afternoon for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants at London’s Wembley Stadium.  “I couldn’t find London on a map if they didn’t have the names of the countries,” Crowder said. “I swear to God. I don’t know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that.”

“I know (Washington Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That’s the closest thing I know to London. He’s black, so I’m sure he’s not from London. I’m sure that’s a coincidental name.”

Via The Palm Beach Post.

City of Angels Photoroll

Shopping at Kitson

Bought some kicks and a gift at the Kitson boutique on Robertson boulevard. There was a Rolls-Royce Phantom parked out front, confirmation that I was in good company.

Shopping at the Grove

We went shopping at the Grove, just east of Beverly Hills. Probably checking out Kitson on Robertson Boulevard later.

Straight Outta Malibu

We met up with a friend of ours in Santa Monica, who was kind enough to show us around the 3rd St. Promenade, the beach, and the pier. Pasteur wouldn’t exactly recommend swimming in Santa Monica, so we headed to Malibu Lagoon to take a dip in the sea there.